The Call of the Osprey by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent (review)

To help determine the health of a river, study the birds that nest on its banks. At the largest Superfund cleanup site along the Clark Fork River in Montana, the Montana Osprey Project monitors the raptors that, at the top of their food chain, feed on fish they catch in the river—fish that eat the bottom feeders which, in turn, are likely to have been contaminated by heavy metals from mining runoff dating back to the nineteenth century. These toxins accumulate on the way up the food chain, and therefore the concentration found in the osprey is a good indicator of the state of the river and the efficacy of the cleanup. Patent joins the scientists who safeguard the osprey nests (the bird frequently nest near electrical wires), install webcams used for scientific study and community engagement, and, most importantly, briefly capture the birds to gauge their health and to equip them with GPS locators to track their migration patterns. There are many threads to this particular story in the Scientists in the Field series, and Patent and the book’s designer do their best to keep the narrative rolling, while sidebars expand upon issues from bird migration to mining, DDT to Superfund sites. Readers who prefer to shortcut straight to the birds themselves will be particularly pleased not only with the myriad photographs but also with inserts on the nesting pairs (Stanley and Iris, and Ozzie and Harriet), tracked by the webcam as they mated and raised their chicks. Resources for information on ospreys, western mining, river cleanup, bird webcams, and advocacy organizations; a glossary; and an index are included.